RNAS St Merryn, HMS Vulture, Cornwall. Technical Site

Technical site.
1 x Callender Hamilton hangar.
2 x Pentad hangars.
4 x Teesside 'S' hangars 60ftx70ft.
13 x Mains 60ftx70ft.
13x Mains 60ftx84ft.
Officers: 156, Chiefs, P.O.s and ratings: 1,265. Officers: 4 W.R.N.S, Chiefs, P.O.s and ratings, 210.
709 Fighter Ground Attack School (Part of the School of Naval Air Warfare). Formed here 15.09.44. Disbanded here 09.01.46. Equipped with Seafire L.III, Hellcat I, & II, Harvard IIb & III. 715 Fighter Air Combat and Fighter Leaders Course (Part of the School of Naval Air Warfare). Formed here 17.08.44. Disbanded here 31.03.46 and absorbed by 736 squadron. Equipped with Seafire L.III & XVII, Corsair II & IV, Harvard IIb & III. 719 Fighter Air Firing training squadron (Part of the School of Naval Air Warfare). Formed here 15.06.44. Disbanded here 02.01.45. Equipped with Corsair III, Master II, Seafire Ib & IIc, Spitfire Vb, Wildcat IV. 725 Air Target Towing Unit (Part of the School of Naval Air Warfare). Moved here from RNAS Eglinton 04.08.45. Disbanded here 27.12.45 and absorbed by 736 squadron. Equipped with Martinet TT.I. 736 Fighter Combat School (Part of the School of Naval Air Warfare). Moved here from RNAS Yeovilton 02.09.43. Moved to RNAS Culdrose 01/02.50. Equipped with Avenger II, Barracuda II, Corsair III, Firebrand TF.IV, Firefly FR.I , FR.4 & T.I, Harvard III, Master II, Seafire Ib, III, F.15, F.17 & F.46, Spitfire Va, Wellington XI. 738 (Part of the School of Naval Air Warfare, based at RNAS Culdrose). The squadron used the station for Aerodrome Dummy Deck Landing training from January 1953. Equipped with Sea Fury FB.11. 741 Operational Flying Training Unit. Formed here 12.08.46. Disbanded here 25.11.47. Equipped with Firefly FR.I, Seafire L.III, Harvard III. 748 Fighter Pool Squadron Formed here 12.10.42. Moved to RNAS Henstridge 04.02.44. Moved here from RNAS Dale 14.08.45. Disbanded here 11.02.46. Equipped with Corsair II, III & IV, Firefly I, Hellcat I, Hurricane I, Fulmar I & II, Master I & II, Spitfire I, Va & Vb, Seafire Ib, IIc & III, Wildcat V & VI. 750 Observer School Part II. Formed here 17.04.52 out of 796 squadron. Moved to RNAS Culdrose 30.11.43. Equipped with Barracuda TR.3. 762 Advanced Flying Training School. Moved here from RNAS Yeovilton 15.04.42. Returned to RNAS Yeovilton 08.09.42. Equipped with Fulmar I & II, Martlet I,Master I. 774 Armament Training Squadron. Moved here from R.N.A.S. Evanton 17.09.1940. Moved to R.N.A.S. Rattray 24.10.1944 Equipped with Albacore I, Roc, Shark IIIT, Skua II, Swordfish I/II, Barracuda II, Sea Hurricane Ib, 787 Z Flt. Fleet Fighter Development Unit. Moved here from RNAS Lee-on-Solent 24.02.43. Moved to RNAS Inskip 16.11.54, Returned from RNAS Inskip 14.01.44 and operated at the satellite airfield at Treligga. Flight disbanded here 01.07.44. Equipped with Fulmar & II, Hurricane IV, Sea Hurricane Ia & IIc, Swordfish I & II. 792 Air Target Towing Unit Formed here 15.08.40. Disbanded here 02.01.45 and absorbed by 794 squadron. Equipped with Anson I, Defiant TT.III, Lysander III, Martinet 1TT, Master I, Proctor Ia,Roc TT.I, Sea Gladiator, Sea Hurricane Ia, Skua II. 794 School of Air Firing. Formed here 02.01.45. Moved to RNAS Eglinton 09.08.45. Equipped with Corsair III, Fulmar II, Harvard IIb & III, Martinet TT.I, Master II, Seafire L.III, Spitfire Vb, Wildcat IV. 796 Aircrewmans School (Observer School Part II from 1850) Formed here 13.11.47. Moved to RNAS Culdrose 09.02.54. Equipped with Barracuda III, Firefly FR.I, AS.5, AS.6, T.3 & T.7, Tiger Moth T.2. From: Fleet Air Arm Bases 1939 to present day.

Technical site.
Pre-war civil 1930's hangar.
St Merryn was established prior to World War I as a private aerodrome, became a civil aerodrome in the 1920’s before being commandeered by the Admiralty in the mid-1930’s. It is historically important to the Royal Naval Fleet Air Arm as it was the first Fleet Air Arm aerodrome to be constructed.

1937 - 1956 RNAS St Merryn.
The Royal Naval Air Station at St Merryn Airfield was known as HMS Vulture. Originally the airfield was built with one airstrip and a hangar to use for civil purposes but it became a training centre for airborne observers and for pilots to practice aircraft carrier flight manoeuvres. This started in the summer of 1940. Later four runways were designed for short take-offs into the prevailing wind to replicate take-off from aircraft carriers.

RNAS St Merryn was an important site associated with the Pacific air carrier battles. Activity at the bases in late 1944 as the aircrews of the torpedo bombers and fighters who flew from Britain's aircraft carriers in these battles, were trained here and at its satellite bombing and gunnery range, HMS Vulture II at Treligga, near Delabole.

Technical site.
Pre-war Hangar offices around the back.

Technical site.
Standby Set House possibly holding two generators attached to alternators / dynamos to run the emergency electrical system.

Technical site.
Cannon Stop Butts. A very large stop butts, the grass was wet and very long so this is as close as we got.

Technical site.
Cannon Stop Butts. The side wall with large buttress supports and attached offices. The small hatch on the top corner is to raise & lower the danger red flag.

Technical site.
Mainhill 'S' Hangar.
Two Mains hangars used as workshops/storage.
There were:
9 x Tech hangars - 60ftx70ft.
6 x Tech hangars - 60ftx84ft.
9 x Sqdn hangars - 60ftx70ft.
6 x Sqdn hangars - 60ftx84ft.
1 x Sqdn hangars - 185ftx84ft.

Technical site.
Mainhill 'S' Hangars.
Two Mains Hangars left here and not in too good a shape. The first used as a silage clamp with parts of the front & rear now falling away.

Technical site.
Mainhill 'S' Hangars.
Two Mains Hangars left here and not in too good a shape. The first used as a silage clamp with parts of the front & rear now falling away. I believe they were not used as hangars but as workshops.

Technical site.
Mainhill 'S' Hangars.
The view inside on a wet afternoon in July.

Technical site.
Mainhill 'S' Hangar.
This is second of three left here out of 13 that were built here.

Technical site.
Mainhill 'S' Hangar.
Inside showing the roof sections, the rear wall looks as though its losing lots of sheets.

Technical site.
Mainhill 'S' Hangar.
Work benches along the wall.

Technical site.
Mainhill 'S' Hangar.
The bricked end wall with. The Mainhill 'S' only had a door on one end, if it was bricked up as here. It was possibly either a workshop, or a turret training area. Anything that was needed. In RNAS Lee-on-Solent there is a full sized theatre taking up a quarter of an older RAF 'A' type hangar.

Technical site.
Training huts, there is no plan that I know of for St Merryn, so I am only guessing what each building was used for.

Technical site.
Royal Naval Pillbox, Navy certainly had different ideas from the RAF and Army about defences.

Technical site.
Technical Buildings (Main Store? if it was RAF).

Technical site.
Instructional building.

Technical site.
M&E plinth.

Technical site.
Instructional building.

Technical site.
Instructional building.

Technical site.
Instructional building.

Technical site.
Instructional building/store with loading ramp. The arrows point to the fire bell above and part of the fire fighting water supply, bottom.

Technical site.
Instructional building.
Presuming its part of the fire fighting water supply system??

Technical site.
Photographic hut.

Technical site.
Photographic hut inside.

Technical site.
Completely covered in Ivy, this maybe the HQ building. The design is based on WW1 RFC design in a U shape.

Technical site.
I think this is the HQ Building.
An odd feature of this building is the hardened concrete roof over what could have been the Captains Office.

Technical site.
Nissen style hut.
This Nissen store hut, it was next one of the large hangars that sat here.

Technical site.
Flight hut? made of concrete block.

Technical site.
Flight hut & control tower.

Technical site.
Latrine hut?

Technical site.
Control tower.
Built later in the war. The first aircraft to arrive were 792sqn with Roc's & Skuas as air target towing and 774sqn with Swordfish & Roc's for telegraphist air gunner training.

Technical site.
Control tower.

Technical site.
Control tower

Technical site.
Control tower. A bit of a hotch pot of building.

Technical site.
Control tower inside.

Technical site.
Control tower looking up the tower. I believe thats the stair well.

Technical site.
Control tower toilets.

Technical site.
Air raid shelter.
Air raid precautions were needed earlier in the war, St Merryn was attacked quite a few times.

Technical site.
Air raid shelter inside, a prefabricated concrete structure and looks like a Bison design.

Technical site.
Air raid shelter.